


Memento Mori

by QueenAmidalaa (Natasha24)



Series: Words [3]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Heartache, Heavy Angst, Rating bc of brief mention of torture, Reyux, in which Hux has been captured and is set for execution
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-19
Updated: 2016-04-19
Packaged: 2018-06-03 04:26:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6596605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Natasha24/pseuds/QueenAmidalaa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maybe Rey’s cries of protest hadn’t fallen on deaf ears.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Memento Mori

 

> **Memento Mori (Latin)**
> 
> "Remember you must die"; a reminder of mortality

 

She should have thought harder.

 

Rey prided herself on being a quick thinker. She had to be, she would have been dead long ago if she dared to take her time. The Resistance wasn’t a place for slow thinkers, but it seemed as though she had forgotten that. Her quick sense had only failed her, and his blood would forever be on her hands.

 

“Don’t cry for me,” Hux told her gently. He grabbed her waist when she began to shake her head and placed a kiss on her forehead. He’d come to terms that he was set to die today, at exactly 14:00. He’d made peace with his death, had determined that he has done enough in this galaxy to make a difference. Knowing his name will go down in First Order history books and be spoken about in motivation to young officers and stormtroopers alike had provided some sort of comfort to him. Rey, on the other hand, was absolutely devastated. Hux could only feel saddened that he couldn’t protect her from what was to come.

 

Her hands gathered in the material of his uniform top as she pressed her ear over his heart. Rey didn’t speak, she only listened to a heart that would no longer beat after today. In 19 minutes, she reminded herself. She had only 9 minutes left with him.

 

Rey pulled back and pressed her lips to his. Hux kissed her with all he had in his heart and even his soul. He figured he has nothing left to lose. Phasma had been lucky to escape The Resistance’s raid, but Mitaka and several others including himself hadn’t. Not even Kylo Ren had. He was set to die after Hux, though there was doubt Leia Organa would execute the last connection she had to Han, and most importantly, her own son. He didn’t voice these thoughts to Rey with the knowledge that they would only make her more distraught, so he wrapped his arms around her and held her as close as he could.

 

Rey’s hands rose to his face. She touched his cheeks, the near golden hairs along his jawline tickling her fingers. She pulls away from their kiss to allow her to draw her fingers over his lips, and then his chin. Her eyes studied his face carefully. She took note of the faint freckles near his nose, and how his eyes looked more blue than green in the sunlight. She tried to memorize how his arms felt around her back, the little pouch of fat he’d never been able to get rid of that pressed against her flat stomach when the hugged her, how he was looking at her like he regretted having to put her through this.

 

“I love you so much. Please, let me help you-”

 

“This is the end for me, Rey. I ask that you allow me to die in honor, and not on some uninhabited planet in the Outer Rim.”

 

She laughed softly then. “Don’t you dare use that ‘general’ voice with me.” Only moments after speaking, her laughter dissolved into light sobs and she was back to pressing her ear to his chest again to hear that beautiful heartbeat while it’s still there.

 

At that moment, Hux made a decision. “I do have one wish.”

 

“And that is?”

 

“I wish for you to avoid my execution.”

 

She only nodded, choosing wisely not to spend their last 3 minutes together arguing.

 

A guard came sometime in between their 4th and 3rd last kiss, alerting them that they only have a minute. Rey helped him finish dressing in his First Order robes and ribbons. She draped his coat over his shoulders, smoothing out the little creases that had settled in the fabric. Her emperor, once sitting high above the army he had personally built but would be mocked and jeered at by those she called family.

 

Rey cursed at their predicament and brought her hands to her face. She couldn’t act as though this wasn’t tearing her apart. She loved him far too much. He would behave, she just knew it, he would learn how to follow Leia’s orders. If it meant making her smile, if it meant raising a family with her and growing old together, Rey just knew he would do it.

 

“I need to go talk to-”

 

“ _Rey_.” She shook her head in denial as he turned and held her close once more. “We have done all that we can. General Organa has made her decision.”

 

The guard unlocked the cell door, indicating that their time was up. Hux pulled away from her and inclined his head. He offered his wrists to the guard to be shackled.

 

The metal clasped over his wrists in an instant and Rey sputtered. The realness of the situation suddenly crashing down upon her, hitting her hard as she realized that once Hux leaves this room, she will never again see him as he was right then. “Wait!”

 

“There is no more waiting. You know this to be true.” Hux said, all diplomatic and stoic and it just broke her heart to hear the slight undercurrent of worry in his words. He could have pretended all he wanted, but Rey knew. She knew him without having to feel for his signature in The Force.

 

She stood in the cell door, determined as ever. The guard looked back at Hux with a pleading gaze, but the look returned was nothing short of scathing. The guard’s shoulders slumped and he turned to address the young Jedi carefully.

 

“Ms. Rey-”

 

“Mrs. Hux.” Rey snapped, raising a quivering hand to proudly display the ruby on her finger. She caught Hux looking at the similar band circling the same finger on his left hand. A somber smile rose to her lips as she remembered their simplistic union, her in an elegant white dress and him in his uniform. The decision to wed had been one of urgency, and one that remained a well-kept secret until then.

 

The guard’s face was pale by the time she’d been pulled from her thoughts. He would be the one to lead the last living Jedi’s husband to certain death. Immediately, his thoughts went to the disastrous outcome of Hux’s death. Would Rey rebel? Shaking his head, the guard squared his shoulders and asked Rey to move once again. He lived to serve The Resistance, and he would have to trust General Leia’s  judgment.

 

“Rey.” Every time Hux spoke her name and nothing else, she knew he was silently pleading with her to make things easier for him. He did not want his life to end. The thought of leaving Rey alone, of never seeing her smile or kissing her lips again left an unsettling feeling in his chest. Still, he would not die with tears on his cheeks, begging for forgiveness. He would die with his head held high, bearing his alabaster neck proudly so there would be no mishaps in the separation of his head and body. He would do so for the sake of all he believed in. He could only hope that The Resistance would not be cruel enough to allow Rey to view his body after his execution.

 

A tug of his wrists brought Hux back to the present. The unnamed guard was pulling him through the cell door. Rey stood off to the side, her hands holding her forearms so tight that her bones pushed against her skin.

 

He should say something. He should leave her with something inspirational, something she would be satisfied with him using as his last words. He should-

 

“I love you.” Hux pulled away from the guard for a moment and pressed a hard kiss to lips that he would never kiss again. He was pulled away only seconds later and chose to follow the guard without another word.

 

Rey’s reply was stuck somewhere between her heart and her lips. She stood defenseless as he was lead away. Her tears didn’t fall until the dungeon door closed for fear that her last look at him would be blurred. When he was out of her sight, she couldn’t help the scream that tore from her throat.

 

* * *

 

Hux regarded the jeering crowd as he would a bug on his throne. His indifferent expression was all but a mask and the guard who led him to the stage of sorts knew so but chose to remain silent. In his mind, he was quaking. He knew nothing of the supposed afterlife except that it did not have Rey. It may not have Rey for over 20 years, or even 70 if she followed in the steps of many Jedi masters. He hoped time would pass by at the speed of lighting on the other side. He hoped there were such things as ghosts so he could see her thrive.

 

With a sigh, Hux told himself the truth as he was shoved to his knees on the stage. Where he was sure to go, he would never see his wife’s beautiful face again. He lost his balance for a moment and fell forward, his hands catching him. Hux couldn’t help the shock that registered on his face when he caught sight of Mitaka’s swollen, severed head alongside his blackened body.

 

Maybe Rey’s cries of protest hadn’t fallen on deaf ears.

 

Hux was wrenched back into place, but he couldn’t find it in himself to wear his mask of indifference after what he’d witnessed. His palms were stained with the blood of his former coworker. These people who called themselves ‘the good guys’ were one in the same as the dark side. There was nothing honorable about burning a man half to death and only then choosing to end his life.

 

As he stared out into the sea of those who cheered for his death, he wondered for a moment if he shouldn’t have banned Rey from his execution. Maybe seeing her face would have made this all easier on his heart. He wondered if she would freely cry for him in front of her peers as she had in the dungeon, he wondered if she would have ever proudly proclaimed herself his rightful and lawfully wedded wife of those to the likes of Leia Organa.

 

He wondered--

**Author's Note:**

> A little something I thought up while writing the next chapter for Too Close (I knoww, I'm taking forever. Don't smite me?). I'm particularly fond of this piece, so I figured I better post it before I end up attempting to add onto it. If you liked it, if there was something you didn't, if you have a favorite quote, feel free to tell me in the comments! Feedback means the world to me <3
> 
> Hugeee internet hug to sunshine-galaxy for being my beta, listening to my little rants, and not allowing me to embarrass myself with my little mistakes :)


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